House collapse, 1242 New Jersey Avenue NW

House collapse, 1200 block of New Jersey Avenue NW
Originally uploaded by rllayman.

This photo is from the article from the Washington Afro-American, House collapses in historic Mount Vernon
and the issue has been covered here and there.

The DCFD website has a larger photo of the building before it collapsed, but no post-collapse photos.

The Afro-American covers the issue pretty well. People who don't know what they are doing are doing renovations, often without permits, often without shoring up the buildings, or preliminary structural work. (Can we say "civil engineer?")

The InShaw and Frozen Tropics blogs have covered similar building collapses in their respective neighborhoods.

I wish there were a way to certify renovators... and too bad the tenant in this house didn't call DCRA to initiate a stop work order because work was being performed on her house without permits.

At least, it doesn't look like there is a permit posted in the window of the collapsing house, according to the DCFD website photo below.